


hostage

by stardustgirl



Series: AU of an AU [9]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: (not super bad but if that's triggering for you I'd avoid this, Beating, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Implied/Referenced Manipulation, Implied/Referenced Mild Torture, Sabine Wren Needs a Hug, Torture, Whumptober, Whumptober 2018, it isn't happy either, not angst but uh, not as dark as "tester" and "choices" are but it's definitely up there, warning it's kind of dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 05:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16319993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: They really don't understand just how much an engineer's life is worth to the Empire, do they?  Otherwise they wouldn't have gone to all that trouble.





	hostage

**Author's Note:**

> this was weird to write but uh  
> have some  
> Whumptober stuff ig
> 
> TW: Torture, Beating

A slap is what wakes her.

Her head jerks up, inhaling sharply as her eyes snap open.  There’s a bright light, too bright; she winces and half-closes her eyes.

Let them talk first.

“Sabine Wren.  Chief of an unknown weapons development team that produced the Duchess, of which you were the mastermind of.  Transferred to an unknown project codenamed ‘Stardust’ about three cycles after the Duchess’s conception, and transferred from Sundari to Capital City on Lothal in order to work on it.

“But tell me, Sabine Wren, what was so important to the  _ Death Star _ on Lothal that required you to remain there both several cycles  _ before _ its completion, and several cycles  _ afterward. _ ”

She stares blankly into the light, blinking.  Let them think she only knows Mando’a. Please,  _ please _ let them think she only knows Mando’a.

“Are you thick, girl, or just mute?”

A softer, but still masculine, voice slides in.  “We know you understand Basic, Wren. It’s no use pretending otherwise.”

“I’m not telling you anything until you tell me who  _ you _ are,” she snarls, voice hoarse.  Another slap, her neck snapping to the side as her breath catches.

“You don’t need to know that.  Just know that we won’t hesitate to use other methods of persuasion.”  She swallows but still attempts to hide her fear, glaring defiantly into the light and trying not to squint.

Several minutes pass, and then the owner of the first voice seems to grow bored.

“Alright.  I’m done waiting.”

Her wrists are jerked over the back of the chair and she cries out before she’s shoved off of the chair and onto her knees.  She coughs, already pushing herself up into a standing position but someone’s kick knocks her back down. She coughs again, breath catching as she stares shakily at the floor, dark hair falling into her face.

“Why were you on Lothal so long?”  There’s someone leaning threateningly close to her face, close enough that his breath is hot on her ear.  She stills.

“Answer me, girl, or we won’t bother informing the Empire of the fact we’re holding one of their top engineers.”

She only lets out a low, hoarse laugh, shaking her head.  “You think they’ll care?”

A sharp blow to the small of her back elicits a gasp and a shudder; she fights to keep herself upright as pain flashes across her vision.

“Yeah, and you’d better too, because if they don’t, we’ve got other uses for you.”  She shudders again.

“What significance does Lothal have to the Empire?”

There’s an easy enough way around this one.  “The TIE Defender program, the farmland, the—“

Another kick shoves Sabine onto her side and she bites her tongue as she falls, hissing in pain as one of her interrogators pulls her up by her shoulder.

“You know what we mean, girl, and I won’t ask you again.”

She swallows thickly.  “And I signed a contract.  It doesn’t make any difference what I know if you can’t get it out of me, does it?” she growls sardonically.

There’s a scoffing noise, and another kick.

She grits her teeth and remains silent.

* * *

 

“We have a better chance at succeeding than the others did before.  We’ve been planning this since they failed, since we saw them crash and burn more spectacularly than Alderaan did.  We know their mistakes. And we’ve been planning around them. We’re also backed by more systems.”

She nods slowly, still wary.  They could still kill her at any time.  And she would still be powerless.

She knows they’re not coming for her by now.

“Your first contact will be Fulcrum.  They use an encrypted comms channel that you’ll gain access to.  If Fulcrum tells you to do something, you do it; no questions, no exceptions.  Got it?”

She nods again, eyes narrowing fractionally.  “And who’s Fulcrum?”

“You don’t need to know that.”  Of course she doesn’t. “And you have a ship?”

“A ship?” she echoes, not sure she heard them right.

“Yeah, a non-Imp one.  To stay under the radar.”

The Empire knows the  _ Jai’galaar’ _ s description.  But the average smuggler or bounty hunter doesn’t.

“I have one.”

“Good.  I believe Fulcrum’s been looking for someone with a nondescript ship recently, so once you’re in contact with them I wouldn’t be surprised if you got your first mission immediately.”

She nods again.

And prays to the Force that she isn’t caught.

An ending by her own creation would be ironic.

But maybe they could fix the mistakes the cells before made.

And maybe she could begin to make things right.

**Author's Note:**

> For the "hostage," "torture," "manhandling," and "restraints" prompts for Whumptober. Wow that's a lot and yes it's a repeat of a couple of them buttttt you know :)


End file.
